HASC continues to meet with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health regarding its Psychiatric Mobile Response Team curtailment plan, which will severely impact hospitals.

DMH suspended the initial May 15 rollout of its plan given concerns voiced by HASC. These concerns include the following:

• Written communication by DMH to non-designated hospitals informing them of its proposed plan was never provided.
• The plan does not consider potential strategies to improve PMRT efficiency that can be achieved through tele-mental health technology implementation, nor does it propose specific solutions to enhance access to outpatient mental health services.
• The plan will dramatically impact acute care hospitals that will have one less resource, while demand for service is on the increase.

HASC has formed a hospital workgroup that continues to provide DMH valuable feedback in terms of outlining the assessment process and how and when PMRT is requested. HASC believes the use of tele-mental health technology can promote PMRT efficiency while simultaneously reducing patient wait-time. In addition, hospitals have voiced a need for DMH to develop a specific plan that will enhance timely access to outpatient mental health services for individuals discharged from a hospital, thereby reducing unnecessary hospital readmission.

The workgroup will reconvene once DMH has completed its own analysis of the information. In the meantime, DMH has not altered its plan to implement this curtailment plan effective July 1.